Going to the Doctors

I’ve recently made another trip to the doctors as a result of the bad economy. I’ve been leaving Toulouse every weekend this past month to take advantage of having Fridays off. The lack of sales has forced my company to shut down to save on employee pay and energy costs. Taking advantage of three day weekends, I headed to Spain to go skiing, Paris to stroll down the Champs-Elysées, and the Côte d'Azur to go boating …. and finally my body said no more. While in Cannes I came down with a flu that has morphed into bronchitis. A body ache, sore throat, and runny nose made made me slow down.

Realizing that I was loosing my voice and coughing to the point where conversation courses were no longer desirable, I headed to the French doctors. I’ve commented before on the informality of the French doctors. Instead of sterile, bright white facilities the French doctors offices have more of a dingy, comfy homespun feel. I went in yesterday, paid 22 euros to have the doctor check me out and declare that I have bronchitis and then got a list of four medicines to take including antibiotics. He took my Carte Vital which identifies me in the “sécurité sociale” system and tells the system to reimburse me at 70 percent of the cost. The reimbursement will come directly into my bank account. He also filled out a piece of paper that declares me sick so that I can stay at home and not go to work. If you miss work in France for health reasons you need this little piece of paper. I later found out from my flat-mate that I am actually obliged to stay home for the total days that the doctor prescribed, which in my case is two. Otherwise the company will be held responsible for any health problems that might happen on the job.

My doctor hand wrote a list of medications and told me to take it to the pharmacy. I was surprised that anyone could read the scribbles, but the pharmacists managed just fine. The total price for the medications (cough syrup, Advil, an expectorant, and an antibiotic) was about 10 euros. My job does not give me the full coverage health plan called a “mutual,” so I pay 30 percent of any medical care and medications. For about 20 euros out of pocket after re-imbursements I paid for my doctors visit and medication.

I did however have to go to three pharmacies before I found the antibiotics. At one I got the typical French response – no they didn’t have the medication and no he couldn’t tell me where I might be able to find it. I had to take a deep breath and try not to get upset at the old man. Even pharmacists will not go out of their way to give you useful information! It is the customer service rule of no customer service. I imagined myself expiring on the doorstep and it being this pharmacist’s fault, and then I pulled it together and went to the next pharmacy where I found the medication.

Interestingly enough my doctor seemed pessimistic that the French system would survive. I can see why it might run the tax payers into the ground and the system has a tendancy towards over-medication. The French consume huge amounts of prescriptions and are the world leaders in anti-depressant usage. I have one acquaintance who takes so many medications that the they are doing more harm than his other issues. But despite the oversight issue, the French system makes medical help possible for someone like me on a tight budget. And merci bien for that! I wouldn't want to think about the costs in the US for similar treatement.

How Do You Talk About Race?

I just listened to an NPR Talk of the World podcast called “How Does Your Country Talk about Race?” Don Gonyea of NPR asks a worldwide audience if the election of Obama has changed the way people in other countries discuss race, and if so how.

The piece is fascinating for me because it focuses heavily on the race conversation in France and illustrates many of the differences between the U.S. and France concerning this topic. As always, I’m a huge fan of NPR and suggest the podcast.

Living here in France has helped illustrate for me the influence of culture on the way people analyze issues and think. You might hope you analyze situations independently, but move to another country and you realize how deeply your cultural upbringing dictates what you think. One of the areas where I see this in France is the resistance to acknowledging any racial or ethnic differences as a means of creating equality.

The French, in theory, want everyone to be equal, and so refuse to recognize racial differences at the political level. In France you cannot ask someone to identify their race, ethnicity or religious affiliation. Thus, there are no hard statistics in France that include any of these categories.

However, as Pap Ndiaye, a historian, professor and guests on Talk of the World points out, non-white French citizens are routinely discriminated against in France. There are no statistics to prove it, but you will find very few Algerians or Africans (or people from other non-white ethnicities) in high positions in government or business in France.

The belief in “egalité” is held to with such vigor in France that people become offended when race is brought into the conversation at all. Recently, a French student of mine who works with me to learn English became livid during a conversation that brought up cultural differences. We were reading a short article describing how Athabaskans, a North American language group of Native Americans, dislike speaking when meeting a stranger. The article said that when an Athabaskan speaker is uncertain of the relationship she should have with a stranger, she prefers not to speak until the relationship becomes more clear. Thus, “introductions” are rather silent affairs where nothing much is said.

After my French student read this he could barely speak, he was so frustrated. He threw down the paper I had given him and exclaimed that the article was completely racist. He explained that for him, saying that Athabaskans speak less is racist. Clearly, my student thinks it is wrong to generalize based on ethnicity.

This summer I was trying to explain to a different student why I liked Obama over Hillary Clinton, and one of my many reasons was that he was black. My student became visibly angry and upset by what I had said. So, I explained again: yes, I think it is important that Obama is black and that I think his race changes what he can do for the country. My student vehemently argued that a candidate’s race should not change the way you think about him, that I should want a good president and should ignore everything else. I argued that, all else being equal, a good black president could do more for race relations in our country than a good white president.

Obama has been and still is extremely popular in France. This is not because he is black. I personally believe Obama is loved in France for one very simple reason: he is not Republican like the much hated, much ridiculed George W. He is adored here for that reason as well as for his charisma and the sense of honesty he emits. Although the French are hesitant to dwell on his race, Obama’s election has indeed sparked a conversation about the absence of non-whites in French politics. The thought that the U.S. – a country the French consider fundamentally racist – could elect a black president before France has caused shock waves here and a bit of introspection. There is now also more talk about “positive discrimination,” the French way of saying affirmative action which has been fairly taboo up until now. This change can be seen with the recent appointment of Yazid Sabeg, a supporter of affirmative action, as Commissioner of Diversity.

Of course, differences do exist and people in France remark racial differences and discriminate accordingly. In the NPR piece, an English instructor working in Paris talks about how his students with Algerian roots will describe themselves as “French” only to have a white French student correct them by saying, “no, you are Algerian.” The first student will then respond that he is a French citizen, that he has always lived in France, and that he is indeed French. As in this example, the adjective “French” is often reserved for people who have historically resided in France. French thus means “white” French.

Differences exist. They are not always good - it is not a good thing that Africans are discriminated against in France nor African-Americans in the United States. But if you don’t acknowledge differences you can’t acknowledge systematic abuses taking place, nor celebrate diversity.

I dislike being judged as a certain way simply because I am American. No, I don’t eat at McDonald's all the time, no, I do not think we should have gone into Iraq, no, I don’t always think about money. And yet it is helpful to talk about “American tradition,” “American culture” and “Americans.” I often make general comparisons between French and American cultures because they are fundamentally different, even if each individual is particular and unique. For example, there is a very different conversation about race going on in the two countries, and a different approach on how to discourage racial discrimination.